Whatever your New Year’s traditions are, I hope they are lots and lots of fun and set you up to have an AMAZING 2018.

The New Year for many of us is a time of new beginnings with lots of us making “resolutions” that may or may not be kept and many of us evaluating whether or not we lived up to what we wanted to accomplish.

I’ve done a lot of thinking myself in the past few weeks and I’ve worked out a few systems to make 2018 a very productive and successful year. Here are the top 5 things I’ll be implementing in the new year.

Make Information Visible

Lots of ideas end up floating around in my head and never see the light of day. Information that is hidden ends up not getting acted on or helping anyone. By writing things out, keeping a journal, and developing systems with checklists and recurring tasks, I can get the information out into the open where I can test it and evaluate it.

Use a Consistent Scheduling System

This is something that’s been super helpful for me in 2017 and that I intend to keep doing in 2018. I use an online calendar that is synced to my phone and computer and I schedule EVERYTHING on it.

From my drive times to the gym to time for myself, it’s on there. This keeps me on schedule and on track. So much so that it’s like my second brain. I particularly like the recurring tasks function of an online calendar. It copies over the recurring things I do each week, making my scheduling and life much easier.

If you don’t like online systems, a lot of my friends have found great success with journaling and they often have debates over what the best notebook is to use for journals. But this one seems to be the most popular option.

Use “Cues” in Your Environment to Achieve More

In the book Pre-Suasion, Robert Cialdini (which happened to make my list of Top 10 Online Business Books of 2017) talks about how cues in your environment can help you achieve more. And I know it sounds like something out of a 90’s motivational seminar, but having words like success, win, goals, and achieve on your walls can make you more focused and more persistent.

Hanging a few of these inspirational posters is a pretty painless way to get more motivated.

Make Your Financial Systems Work for You

Complex accounting systems are great for CPAs but don’t work super well for most business owners. Instead, you may want to try a system like “Profit First”, which is simple to set up and maintain and will help you to have complete control over your money.

It goes along with my first resolution of “making information visible” because when you set your money up the Profit First way, you’ll ALWAYS know exactly how much you have in the bank for your own salary for business expenses and for the IRS.

Take Some Down Time

When you’re working for yourself it’s easy to stay plugged in every waking moment of every single day.

This is a surefire recipe for burnout.

Try to take 1 full day off per week and a few days off every single month where you don’t deal with any business issues.

I find it valuable to take time be completely “unplugged”. And spend time with real people in the real world (I personally love to do this at restaurants with great food).

If you take time for yourself, work becomes SO MUCH more fun and SO MUCH more productive.

Making 2018 really count can help you move business forward in super significant ways. Here’s to an AMAZING New Year!